Seoul Cyberpunk Story-Chapter 11: Heart Drill (2)

The absolute silence was surreal—almost unbelievable—that this place had been filled with gunfire, explosions, and screams just moments ago.

Now, only the sound of the wind threading through the buildings remained in this open lot.

The eerie quiet dissipated when a black-haired woman spoke to me.

“W-what the hell...?”

Her voice carried the weight of someone witnessing something beyond belief.

Fear and awe clashed in her eyes.

For a moment, her gaze wavered before settling, her head shaking slowly.

“No... Thank you. Really.”

She straightened her posture and locked eyes with me.

“I’m Onyx from the Concrete Family. Who are you?”

The moment I heard those words, a strong sense of déjà vu hit me.

The first time I met Amber... it had been the same. The same atmosphere. The same question.

Only a year ago.

Back when I drifted through the back alleys, taking on mercenary jobs without any real plan.

When I didn’t even have a proper name—just known as That Pizza Guy or The Crazy Pizza Man.

I had the sudden impulse to ask for a pizza as payment again, just like I did when I first met Amber.

But this time, I was here on a job. Hired as a mercenary. I had to answer properly.

“Mercenary A from the Seoul Office. I’m here for the Heart Drill investigation.”

Onyx’s expression relaxed slightly at my words.

With a quiet sigh of relief, some of the tension drained from her stance.

“Oh, Amber’s office? I thought she gave up on this job since no mercenaries showed up...”

Now reassured, Onyx scanned the area and started giving orders to her subordinates with practiced ease.

“Erase every trace here. Gather all debris and incinerate it. As for the fallen brothers... keep them in the underground vault. We’ll give them a proper funeral when this is all over.”

As her subordinates moved swiftly, she nodded at me.

“Follow me.”

The building Onyx led me into had an unusual atmosphere.

Everything was white.

The walls, the ceiling, the floor—every surface was so bright it hurt my eyes.

The black of my coat felt almost unnatural in this space.

At the end of the stark white corridor, Onyx opened a door.

The moment I stepped inside, I was met with an even more extreme whiteness.

Not just the walls, but the furniture too—everything was completely, immaculately white.

A room that felt like it could drive someone insane.

Onyx sat in one of the chairs and swiped a finger across an AR screen.

Streams of data flowed across the transparent panel.

After a brief pause, she looked up.

“I checked with the Seoul Office. Nice to meet you, A.”

She must have contacted Amber to confirm that I was really one of her mercenaries.

“Let me introduce myself again. I’m Onyx, daughter of the Concrete Family’s boss—and the client for this job.”

Client?

My brow lifted slightly.

I °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° had assumed the client would be the gang boss himself...

Onyx must have noticed the doubt in my expression because she immediately continued.

“My father doesn’t know about this request. And he can’t know.”

Her voice lowered.

“This isn’t an official job from the Family. I’m the one who personally requested it.”

Leaning forward slightly, as if sharing a secret, she spoke in a quiet voice.

“My father is trying to handle this problem using the Family’s strength alone.”

Her fingers gripped the chair’s armrest tightly.

I could see faint scratch marks forming on the smooth white surface.

“He’s completely ignoring what the other executives are saying. It’s... weird.”

A troubled expression crossed her face as she tilted her head slightly.

“He wasn’t always this reckless...”

****

After the brief conversation, I told Onyx I’d start my investigation.

She took the lead, guiding me through the gang’s territory.

“This way.”

Onyx led me to a particular district.

“This is the northern sector of the Concrete Family’s base. It’s where most Heart Drill addicts have been found.”

“Hmm...”

I glanced around slowly, masking my frustration.

I had planned to just wander around and kill time, pretending to investigate.

But I hadn’t expected the client herself to follow me around and explain everything.

Honestly, I wasn’t used to actual investigation work.

Gathering evidence, tracking suspects, analyzing clues...

That wasn’t my style. I was more comfortable with charging in and tearing apart whatever target I was assigned.

Did I screw up by taking this job just for the credits?

I had started the Heart Drill investigation, but I still had no idea why Amber sent me here in the first place.

Onyx enthusiastically introduced different facilities and people, occasionally giving me bright, expectant looks.

Like she thought I was about to start some impressive detective work.

Maybe she was overestimating me because I had taken down that berserker.

“Well, let’s just take a look around first?”

I suggested awkwardly.

Onyx nodded and began walking at a slow pace, keeping step with me.

“You’re really different from the netwitches we’ve had here before. Those guys locked themselves up in some corner the moment they arrived.”

“The number of Heart Drill addicts is increasing. At this rate, we won’t be able to keep the Family together for more than a month.”

I listened to Onyx as we walked through the vast, white-walled complex.

I wasn’t paying much attention to where I was going, but Onyx kept glancing at me, as if gauging my reaction.

After some time, I noticed something odd.

The gang members training nearby were far better equipped than I had expected.

More specifically, their gear quality was way too high.

“...Are all those firearms from Hexa Core Armory?”

I asked, narrowing my eyes.

Onyx nodded.

“Probably most of the Family is using them.”

Someone might scoff at making a big deal out of a bunch of rifles.

But if all those rifles were Hexa Core Armory weapons, that changed things.

Even among mercenaries at Amber’s office, there were plenty who wanted Hexa Core gear but couldn’t get their hands on it.

They were expensive as hell, even for well-paid mercs constantly risking their lives.

Yet somehow, a gang—who relied on numbers more than skill—had stockpiled a massive arsenal of high-grade weapons.

That was more than just a little strange.

"Hexa Core Armory weapons are insanely expensive. How the hell do you have so many?"

Onyx hesitated for a moment before slowly shaking her head.

"Honestly... I don’t know. My father got them from somewhere, that’s all I know."

She genuinely looked like she had no clue.

We continued walking through the massive training grounds.

Then, suddenly, the entire atmosphere shifted.

The gang members in training immediately straightened their posture, while those who had been chatting quickly fell silent.

A group of people strode into the area from the far end of the training ground.

"...Father."

Onyx’s voice was barely above a whisper, but the tension in it was unmistakable.

The boss of the Concrete Family was an imposing figure—towering in height and built like a mountain.

His jet-black hair made his presence even more intimidating, and the deep wrinkles on his face bore witness to countless battles.

But the most striking thing about him was his eyes.

Sharp and unreadable, they seemed to pierce straight through everything.

His gaze swept over me briefly before landing on Onyx.

Disapproval was written all over his face.

"You're wasting your time."

His voice was deep and weighty.

In front of him, Onyx seemed to shrink, like a child being scolded.

"Father, this is just—"

"I will handle it."

He cut her off, his tone firm.

"We don’t need outsiders involved."

With that, he shot me one last, unreadable look before turning away.

His entourage quickly followed him, leaving behind an eerie silence.

Onyx didn’t say anything for a while.

Her face shifted through a storm of emotions.

****

Late at night.

The investigation had yielded no real results, and I returned to the lodging Onyx had prepared for me.

Just like every other building here, the room was blindingly white.

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White walls, white ceiling, white bed, white desk.

I stared at the monotonous interior for a moment, grumbling to myself, before heading straight to the bed.

Finally, it's over...

Even though I had only been walking around all day, I was exhausted.

Maybe it was because I was stuck doing something so out of character.

The thought of having to repeat this pointless wandering tomorrow crossed my mind, but I pushed it aside—that’s tomorrow’s problem.

I plopped onto the bed and hugged the soft pillow.

I was ready to pass out on the spot—until I felt something off inside the pillow.

What the...?

I reached inside and pulled out something hard.

A small device, glowing with a faint blue sheen—the only thing in this whitewashed room that had any color.

It looked like an external terminal, the kind netwitches used.

Could it belong to one of the netwitches who took this job and ended up dead?

I had a feeling that someone had deliberately hidden it inside the pillow.

Judging by the look of it, this device could be useful in the investigation, so I wasted no time in turning it on.

"Hm..."

Unfortunately, it was heavily encrypted.

But I had a trump card.

Absorption.

It wasn’t a combat ability, but if something was built on an AI framework, I could devour it entirely.

The only reason I could communicate with Amber without a separate device was because I had previously absorbed an external communication module.

If I didn’t have this ability, dealing with this kind of shit would be so much more frustrating...

My body might look like a full cybernetic frame straight out of a cyberpunk fever dream, but in reality, it wasn’t.

Other than Absorption, the only special features I had were heightened senses, immense strength, and the ability to function without eating.

Honestly, the fact that I wasn’t fully cybernetic was a relief to me.

People who overloaded themselves with implants always ended up a little... off.

No matter how strong an artificial arm was, if I couldn’t feel anything with it—no warmth, no texture—would I even be able to endure it?

If I stroked my right hand with my left, but there was no sensation, no warmth... would I still be myself?

At least my body, this AI-modeled frame, retained all human functions.

If I ate a pizza and my system just displayed <Pizza flavor.> on an AR screen instead of letting me taste it, I would lose my mind in a day.

As I let my thoughts wander, the device was already being absorbed into my body.

Once it fully merged, I accessed the internal data.

It contained the logs of a netwitch who had been investigating Heart Drill.

Investigation Log – Day 2

No evidence suggests that Heart Drill is an electronic drug.None of the infected show signs of accessing digital drugs.Some victims displayed symptoms despite never connecting to an external network. (Long incubation period?)It seems more like a virus attacking systems rather than a drug.No idea how the virus affects the heart—an organ without implants.Injecting controlled virus strains into some gang members to run a trace simulation.

Investigation Log – Day 3

Trace simulation results are in.Only one software is a possible infection vector.It’s the aim-assist AI that the Concrete Family uses in their firearms.Investigating the AI starting now.

The report was surprisingly detailed.

Even my gut instinct told me—the answer was already in here.